Foxdog Studios: Robot Chef

Fun games with hosts who are detached and overly deadpan

The Fringe should absolutely be ready-made for innovation and the Foxdog Studios pair of Lloyd Henning and Peter Sutton certainly seem to have their finger on the modern pulse. What could be more 'now' than a show in which we all get our phones out and take on a Space Invaders-esque challenge which plays out on a big screen, before helping to remotely cook veggie sausages and beans? Ultimately, though, it's hard to escape the feeling that the pair are facilitators of our own fun rather than actually constructing a work of comedic invention to be admired.

Things do look up a little when Henning introduces the daft character of Duckhat with a manic musical interlude, but we're soon looking down at our screens again to draw a fat dog and then recognise our icons on the screen to navigate a narrow ledge without falling off. As with a lot of obsessive tecchies, there's a bit of a detachment between themselves and real humans, and the tone for the show is to be as sarcastic and deadpan as possible: this works for Sutton nicely given that he appears to have borrowed Stewart Lee's voice for the day while musician Henning could pass for Jemaine Clement in a certain light.

The Foxdog Studios manifesto reads that they want to combine and succeed in the three greatest artforms of all time: comedy, rock music and computer programming. Well, one out of three ain't bad.

Heroes @ Boteco, until 26 Aug, 1.20pm, £5 in advance or donations at the venue.

Foxdog Studios / Heroes
After a year building an invoicing system in Stoke, rock and roll IT consultants Pete and Lloyd are having a party celebrating the end of dBASE IV. Returning with more music, characters, and baffling tech – including an augmented reality world and an audience controlled robot chef – this is…